MANAGERIAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT LAB

SUBMITED BY :
NAME : SANJAY JANGID
ROLL NO. : 46
ENROLLMENT NO. : 4668
CLASS : MBA 3rd SEM
STREAM : FINANCE & MARKETING
SUBMITTED TO :
Dr. JYOTI TEPAN
(Assistant Professor)

MAHARSHI ARVIND INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE &

MANAGEMENT

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 INDEX
Serial no. Particular Page no.

1 Question 1 and answer 3 -4

2 Question 2 and answer 4–5

3 Question 3 and answer 6–8

4 BOOK REVIEW 9 – 15

Q1. Make a field trip to a rural area and observe how people communicate
while conducting business transactions.

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ANS1: There are many challenges to communication in rural like Low literacy level, poor
media reach and exposure. A vast, heterogeneous, and diversely spread rural audiences
characterized by variations in language, culture and lifestyle-all these factors pose multiple
challenges to marketers looking to take their messages to the largely media-dark or media-
grey areas, of rural markets. Communicating the message to rural consumers ha posed
enormous challenges to the rural marketer.

The languages and dialects vary from state to state, region to region and probably from
district to district. Since messages have to be delivered in the local language, it is difficult for
the marketers to design promotional strategies for each of these areas. Facilities such as
phone, telegram and fax are less developed in villages adding to the communication problems
faced by the marketers.

Rural communication is an interactive process in which information, knowledge and skills,

relevant for development are exchanged between farmers, extension/advisory services,
information providers and research either personally or through media such as radio, print
and more recently the new “Information and Communication Technologies” (ICTs). In this
process all actors may be innovators, intermediaries and receivers of information and
knowledge. The aim is to put rural people in a position to have the necessary information for
informed decisionmaking and the relevant skills to improve their livelihoods. Communication
in this context is therefore a non-linear process with the content of data or information.

• Low Literacy Levels: Rural areas suffer from low literacy. Customs and traditions rule,
which makes adoption of new products and practices difficult. There is also a limited
penetration of print media in rural markets.

• Media Reach and Exposure: Though media reach is improving over the years, it is still poor
in many villages. In many media-dark villages, there is limited access to television, radio, and
print, and hence people have limited exposure. Suitable media vehicles just do not exist.

• Diverse Audiences: Villages in India show diverse cultures, languages, varied customs and
traditions and lifestyles. This makes one-size-fits-all strategy irrelevant.

A Dearth of Information: There is a shortage of information in rural areas. Lack of good local
content and reliable information providers add to the dearth of relevant information that
villagers can use.

• Scattered Audiences: Mass media finds it difficult to penetrate rural areas because
audiences are scattered over large distances.

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Q.2 Spend a day at a public place – mall/ movie hall / heritage site and
observe how people communicate through mobile phones? Do you find any
difference in the behavior based on gender, age or socio-economic variable?
Which aspect of you observation would you like to change and why?
ANS 2: Today’s mobile phone is a pervasive tool. It has become such an important aspect of
a user’s daily life that it has moved from being a mere ‘technological object’ to a key ‘social
object. My observations are:

• Mobiles are quickly becoming fashion accessories rather than simple communications
devices.

• Many young people show off their mobile phones to each other. The ringing tones they use,
and the number and quality of messages stored on their mobile phones enhances them social
status

• Women mostly talked to their families, friends, and kids over the call discussing what to
buy and where to visit.

Little kids were seen asking for mobile phones from their parents to watch videos on
YouTube.

• Youngsters were seen utilizing their mobile phones to talk with the friends, show things
they were buying, to make plans on what to do next over the video calls.

• Many developments are under way to transform the mobile phone from a pure person to
person communication device to an electronic wallet and identification system.

• Men carry mobiles in pockets, whereas women carry them in purses or bags. Women,
particularly, see mobiles as a ‘shield’ against unwanted attentions

• With camera phones, users can snap pictures of famous sites and celebrities but also of
things or people they find beautiful or funny, strange occurrences, or everyday events.

• Mobile phones have certainly made it easier to engage in spontaneous communications,

perhaps facilitating that first step in finding a mate. They also help maintain a loving
relationship, allowing couples to keep in touch when they are apart.

Gender differences. In survey I found differences between genders in the following

categories: recipients, information gathering, entertainment, ending relationships, arguing,
privacy, text shorthand and slang, and staying awake. A table representing these differences
is below:

MALE FEMALE BOTH

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Recipients Significant others Friends and family

Information Services (e.g.ChaCha) Questions between

gathering friends

Entertainment Trolling Texting to relieve

boredom

Ending relationships Do so via text Deemed

messaging inappropriate via
text

Arguing Prefer phone call or Prefer text

face-to-face to avoid messaging so as to
misunderstanding moderate responses

Privacy Text to exclude

others in present
company

Shorthand and slang Strong opinions: Some Most prefer

prefer longhand longhand

Q3. Watch one interview of any business personality of your choice, create a
power point presentation on same personality and include following heads:

 Life story
 Achievements
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  Challenges faced
 Your lernings
ANS3:

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Q4. BOOK REVIEW

ON

ESSENTIALISM : THE DISCIPLINED PURSUIT OF LESS

BY

GREG MCKEOWN

BIBLOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

BOOK TITLE: ESSENTIALISM: THE DISCIPLINED PURSUIT OF LESS

AUTHORS: GREG MCKEOWN

PUBLISHER: VIRGIN BOOKS

ISBN: 9780071802673

PAGES: 275

PRICE: RS 2145

About the Author

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people and teams break
through to the next level—and others don’t.

The definitive treatment of this issue is addressed in McKeown’s New York Times and Wall
Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. As well as frequently
being the ….

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#1 Time Management book on Amazon, this book challenges core assumptions about
achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success.

McKeown is the CEO of McKeown Inc. Clients include Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook,
Pixar, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter, VMware and Yahoo!.

His writing has appeared or been covered by The New York Times, Fast Company, Fortune,
HuffPost, Politico, and Inc. Magazine. He is among the most popular bloggers for the
Harvard Business Reviewand LinkedIn’s Influencers group: averaging a million views a
month.

McKeown has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows including NPR,
NBC, FOX, and as a regular guest on The Steve Harvey Show. Entrepreneurvoted his
interview at Stanford University the #1 Must-See Video on Business, Creativity and Success.

Essentialism was voted by Goodread as the #1 Leadership and Success Book to Read in a
Lifetime.

McKeown is an accomplished public speaker. He has spoken to hundreds of audiences

around the world including in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, England, India, Ireland,
Italy, Japan and Singapore.

Highlights include speaking at SXSW, interviewing Al Gore at the Annual Conference of the
World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland and receiving a personal invitation from
Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, to speak to his Annual Innovation Conference.

McKeown challenges conventional wisdom in a unique and engaging style from the first
moment to the last instant. As the event organizer at Greater Public said after McKeown
addressed their 1,000-person conference, “I have been part of this event for 16 years and
McKeown is the best speaker we have ever had!”

McKeown is an active Social Innovator. Serving as a Board Member for Washington D.C.
policy group Resolveand as a mentor with 2 Seeds, a non-profit incubator for agricultural
projects in Africa. He has also been a speaker at non-profit groups including The Kauffman
Fellows, Net Impact and Stanford University: he recently gave back to Stanford University
by co-creating a popular class called, Designing Life, Essentially.

He serves as a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He recently moderated
a session at the “Summer Davos” in China called, “Unpacking Social Innovation Models for
Maximum Impact”, served as a panelist at the “Sharpening Your Creative Edge” working
session at the Forum.

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Prior to this, McKeown collaborated in the research and writing of Multipliers: How the Best
Leaders Make Everyone Smarterandworked for Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Leadership
Practice assessing senior executives.

Originally from London, England, McKeown now lives in Calabasas, California with his
wife, Anna, and their four children.

ABOUT BOOK

“In this book the author emphasis on we need space to escape in order to discern the essential
few from the trivial many. Unfortunately, In our time starved era we don’t get that space by
default—only by design.” “By being selective he bought himself space, and in that space he
found creative freedom.” “For some reason there is a false association with the word focus”.
As with choice, people tend to think of focus as a thing. Yes, focus is something we have. But
focus is also something we do…In order to have focus we need to escape to focus.”

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“He knew that making his highest point of contribution on a task required that he create the
space for unencumbered thought.” “Bill Gates, who regularly (and famously) takes a regular
week off from his daily duties at Microsoft simply to think and read.” (Note: Check out what
some other people do when it comes to digital minimalism and digital decluttering) “

If you believe being overly busy and overextended is evidence of productivity, then you
probably believe that creating space to explore, think, and reflect should be kept to a
minimum. Yet these very activities are the antidote to the nonessential busyness that infects
so many of us.”

“Essentialists spend as much time as possible exploring, listening, debating, questioning, and
thinking. But their exploration is not an end in itself. The purpose of the exploration is to
discern the vital few from the trivial many.”

“This is why an Essentialist takes the time to explore all his options. The extra investment is
justified because some things are so much more important that they repay the effort invested
in finding those things tenfold. An Essentialist, in other words, discerns more so he can do
less.”

“Play leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity. Nothing fires up the brain like
play.” (Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play)“There are two ways to think
about Essentialism. The first is to think of it as something you do occasionally. The second is
to think of it as something you are. In the latter, it is a different way—a simpler way—of
doing everything. It becomes a lifestyle.”

“We have lost our ability to filter what is important and what isn’t. Psychologists call this
‘decision fatigue’: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our
decisions deteriorates.”

“Our options may be things, but a choice—a choice is an action.” “Focusing on the essentials
is a choice. It is your choice. That in itself is incredibly liberating.” “To become an
Essentialist requires a heightened awareness of our ability to choose.”

“Jim Collins’s Good to Great, in which he contends if there’s one thing you are passionate
about—and that you can be best at—you should do just that one thing.” “Inspirational +
Concrete = Essential Intent (makes one decision that eliminates 1,000 later decisions)”

“Creating an essential intent is hard. It takes courage, insight, and foresight to see which
activities and efforts will add up to your single highest point of contribution. It takes asking
tough questions, making real trade-offs, and exercising serious discipline to cut out the
competing priorities that distract us from our true intention. Yet it is worth the effort because
only with real clarity of purpose can people, teams, and organizations fully mobilize and
achieve something truly excellent.”

“Mohandas K. Gandhi — suddenly, he found a higher purpose: the liberation of the

oppressed everywhere. With his new singleness of purpose, he eliminated everything else
from his life. He called the process ‘reducing himself to zero.'”

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“The Main thing is to keep the main thing.” (Stephen R. Covey).” The word priority came
into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It
stayed singular It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the for the next five
hundred years. Only in the 1900 did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities.

“The iconoclastic entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel took ‘l ess but better to an
unorthodox level when he insisted that PayPal employees select one single priority in their
role- and focus on that exclusively. As PayPal executive Keith Rabois recalls: ‘Peter required
that everyone be tasked with exactly one priority. He would refuse to discuss virtually
anything else with you except what was currently assigned as your #1 initiative. Even our
annual review forms in 2001 required each employee to identify their single most valuable
contribution to the company”.

“I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well sad, how many trivial affairs even the
wisest thinks he must attend to in a day so simply the problem of life distinguish the
necessary and the real.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“Moved from a state of motion sickness to momentum…Instead of making just a millimeter

of progress in a million directions he began to generate tremendous momentum towards
accomplishing the things that were truly vital.” “The result is that by investing in fewer things
we have the satisfying experience of making significant progress in the things that matter
most.” “Dieter Rams was the lead designer at Braun for many years. He is driven by the idea
that almost everything is noise. He believes very few things are essential. His job is to filter
through that noise until he gets to the essence.”

“Essentialism is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then

eliminating everything that is not.”

“Ignoring the reality of trade-offs is a terrible strategy for organizations. It turns out to be a
terrible strategy for people as well.” “Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life,
not as an inherently negative part of life. Instead of asking, ‘What do I have to give up?’ they
ask, ‘What do I want to go big on?’ The cumulative impact of this small change in thinking
can be profound.”

“Jack Dorsey…he said he thinks of the role of CEO as being the chief editor of the company
As an editor I am constantly taking these inputs and deciding the one, or intersection of a
few, that make sense for what we are doing.'” “Becoming an Essentialist means making
cutting, condensing, and correcting a natural part of our daily routine—making editing a
natural cadence in our lives.” “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom,
subtract things every day.” (Lao-tzu)

“We need to learn the slow ‘yes’ and the quick ‘no.'” (Tom Friel)“This doesn’t mean you
have to be cynical about people. I don’t mean to imply people shouldn’t be trusted. I am
simply saying everyone is selling something—an idea, a viewpoint, an opinion—in exchange
for your time. Simply being aware of what is being sold allows us to be more deliberate in
deciding whether we want to buy it.”

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“Entrepreneurs succeed when they say ‘yes’ to the right project, at the right time, in the right
way. To accomplish this, they have to be good at saying ‘no’ to all their other ideas.” (Reid
Hoffman)“It was like he was majoring in minor activities.” “Anytime you fail to say ‘no’ to a
nonessential, you are really saying yes by default.” Read this story about Peter Drucker for
one of my favorite examples of saying no.

“The second most important factor differentiating the best violinists from the good violinists
was actually sleep. The best violinists slept an average of 8.6 hours in every twenty-four-hour
period: about an hour longer than the average American. Over the period of a week they also
spent an average of 2.8 hours of napping in the afternoon: about two hours longer than the
average.” (Note: Think about this when designing your 24 hours per day)“Some good news
for the early birds and night owls among us: science shows that even a nap can increase
creativity.”

“Even a brief period of deep sleep, in other words, helps us make the kinds of new to few
connections that allow us to better explore our world. In a nutshell, sleep is what allows us to
operate at our highest level of contribution so that we can achieve more, in less time.””

‘‘ At last author explains everyday progress — even a small win’ can make all the difference
in how people feel and perform. ‘Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and
perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful
work.'” (Amiable and Kramer)“The Essentialist designs a routine that makes achieving what
you have identified as essential the default position. Yes, in some instances an Essentialist
still has to work hard, but with the right routine in place each effort yields exponentially
greater results.” “There is a huge body of scientific research to explain the mechanism by
which routine enables difficult things to become easy.”

“The right routines can actually enhance innovation and creativity by giving us the equivalent
of an energy rebate.” “The work Michal Csikszentmihalyi has done on creativity
demonstrates how highly creative people use strict routines to free up their minds. ‘Most
creative individuals find out early what their best rhythms are for sleeping, eating, and
working, and abide by them even when it is tempting to do otherwise. They wear clothes that
are comfortable, they interact only with people they find congenial, they do only things they
think are important. Of course, such idiosyncrasies are not endearing to those they have to
deal with…But personalizing patterns of action helps to free the mind from the expectations
that make demands on attention and allows intense concentration on matters that count.'”

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